Hollabrunn, Austria - Two Satanists are in custody after stabbing a Christian twice in the heart as he paid his respects to a dead relative at a Lower Austrian cemetery.
The two men, aged 17 and 22, attacked 18-year-old Christian Lucas Kretschmer with a kitchen knife in a cemetery in Hollabrunn in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The victim was later hospitalised in serious condition with two knife wounds to the heart, one to the lungs and also to the head.
The victim’s father Walter said the two Satanists had wanted to teach his son Lucas a lesson "because he had distanced himself from them and believed in God."
Lucas’ mother Lore said: "Satanism was the motive."
Local police said today the three men had been friends earlier but had fallen out over religion as the other two had drifted into Satanism.
The police added they suspected the 17-year-old had wielded the knife and the 22-year-old had been his accomplice, adding that the pair had then called an ambulance and blamed unknown attackers before later retracting their story.